The Creativity Challenge: Pioneer Seeks to Broaden the Horizons of HK Youngsters

Hong Kong  – Freddy Law Wai-hung is a man with a mission. He wants to inject a degree of creativity and curiosity about the world into Hong Kong’s academically straight-jacketed education system.

“I had worked in India and Europe, and after I came back, I realized that Hong Kong students lack creativity, and had no interest in anything outside of Hong Kong,” he said. “That is why I set up the institution.”

The workshop is voluntary at the Pentecostal School

Law founded his Inter Cultural Education Centre (ICE) in August 2009. In the ensuing months it has conducted “creativity workshops” in two secondary schools and three universities.

Its goal is to deploy a broad range of trainers – drawn from overseas, from among Hong Kong’s local ethnic minorities and from the ranks of the disabled – to organise workshops for students to broaden their vision and encourage them to become better global citizens.

At the Pentecostal School, an Anglo-Chinese secondary school located at Ho Man Tin in Kowloon, 17 students attended the workshop on the first day. The course started on February 10 and was due to last for two months.

Few of the students demonstrated much awareness of Law’s mission.

Many said they hoped it would help them improve their English. Only one anonymous student wrote down: “I hope I can learn more knowledge about the world”.

The workshop was composed of various games and group activities.

It started with the youngsters dividing up into two rows: boys on one side and girls on the other.

Their first challenge is to ensure they got around the group and talked to every individual.

Each received a sheet of paper with questions starting: “Have you ever … Do you like … Is it true that you … “.

Their task to find out more about their fellow attendees within minutes –- and to talk to everyone in the room.

Each task is different. One requires them to form groups, design a group logo and chant, and share their values and ideas.

They have to communicate in English. They need to perform on stage. This session is conducted by a trainer from Britain and there are guests from Africa who played musical instruments.

There is no formal grading. No As, Bs or Cs.

They have to communicate in English. They need to perform on stage.

“I like this workshop, it is very different from the ordinary classes I have, but [is] full of games and fun,” said participant Thomson Chan Long Sung.

Law graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2007. His partner, Susanna Yu Shu-hui, who is also a director of ICE, graduated from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2009. Many of the ICE management team are still at university.

ICE has yet to turn a profit so Law and Yu work part-time to support themselves – Law teaches English and Yu works as a management associate and wealth planner at ING Life Insurance Company (Bermuda) Ltd.

Law is worried about money. Revenues from the workshops barely cover basic costs including trainers’ salaries, website development, company registration, and marketing. “I haven’t gone shopping for a long time, neither do I socialise with friends much,” said Law.

The pair regard ICE as a social enterprise, which means a business that has a mission beyond merely making profits: either helping the underprivileged, or tackling social problems. Both Law and Yu think that ICE is working to solve one of the biggest problems in the education system in Hong Kong, which is a lack of global vision.

Their efforts have won recognition. ICE emerged as Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge (HKSEC) champion in early 2010, beating out 215 other teams.

“They (the ICE team) will definitely bring changes, not necessarily to the whole education system, but the learning attitudes of the Hong Kong local students,” said Mingles Tsoi, project director, HKSEC.

Yu said the social enterprise concept is not well-recognized in Hong Kong, although a public opinion poll conducted in February 2009 by The University of Hong Kong’s Public Opinion Programme shows that 59% of respondents were aware of the goals of social enterprises and were willing to pay more to support this kind of business..

Their first client, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Lo Kon Ting Memorial College, is Law’s alma mater, and it referred the ICE to the Pentecostal School.

Pentecostal School students allows students to decide for themselves whether or not to register.

Tsoi of the HKSEC said that the ICE project was feasible because of its inexpensive start-up costs, its rooted values and Law’s international network.

Yu does not let its financial teething problems get her down. “Definitely we are going to expand, first greater China, and then go global,” she said.